(1) “Alteration of watercourse” means any action that will change the location of the channel occupied by water within the banks of any portion of a riverine water body.

(2) “Appeal” means a request for review of the interpretation of any provision of this chapter or a request for a variance therefrom.

(3) “Area of special flood hazard” means the land in the floodplain within the City which is subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year. This area designation on flood insurance rate maps always includes the letter A or V.

(4) “Base flood” means flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in any given year (also referred to as the “100-year flood”). The base flood is noted as the special flood hazard area designated on flood insurance rate maps as zone “A” or “V” including AE.

(5) “Base flood elevation” means the elevation to which floodwater is anticipated to rise during the base flood.

(6) “Basement” means any area of the building having its floor sub-grade (below ground level) on all sides.

(7) “Channel migration zone” or “CMZ” means those areas within the lateral extent of likely stream channel movement that are subject to risk due to stream bank destabilization, rapid stream incision, stream bank erosion, and shifts in the location of stream channels. “Channel migration zone” does not include areas that lie behind an arterial road, a public road serving as a sole access route, a State or Federal highway or a railroad. “Channel migration zone” may exclude areas that lie behind a lawfully established flood protection facility that is likely to be maintained by existing programs for public maintenance consistent with designation and classification criteria specified by public rule. When a natural geologic feature affects channel migration, the channel migration zone width will consider such natural constraints. The regulated channel migration zone includes the channel migration zone boundary and extends 50 feet landward in each direction from the stream.

(8) “Critical facility” means a facility for which even a slight chance of flooding might be too great. “Critical facilities” include, but are not limited to, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, police, fire and emergency response installations, and installations which produce, use or store hazardous materials or hazardous waste.

(9) “Development” or “development activity” means any manmade change to improved or unimproved real property, including but not limited to buildings or other structures or mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation, drilling operations or storage of equipment or materials, or removal of more than five percent of the natural vegetation located within the area of special flood hazard. This includes construction, repair, or replacement of culverts, pipes, bridges, levees, bank stabilization, docks, revetments, walls, bulkheads, driveways, or roads.

(10) “Director” means the Director of City of Covington Department of Community Development, or his or her designee. The term “Director” shall be interchangeable with the term “Floodplain Administrator.”

(11) “Elevated building,” for insurance purposes, means a non-basement building which has its lowest elevated floor raised above ground level by foundation walls, shear walls, posts, piers, pilings or columns.

(12) “Existing manufactured home park or subdivision” means a manufactured home park subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed (including, at a minimum, the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads) is completed before the effective date of the adopted floodplain management regulations.

(13) “Expansion to an existing manufactured home park or subdivision” means the preparation of additional sites by the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed, including the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads.

(14) “Flood” or “flooding” means a general and temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of normally dry land areas from (a) the overflow of inland or tidal waters; (b) the unusual and rapid accumulation of surface water runoff from any source; (c) mudslides (i.e., mudflows) that are proximately caused by flooding as defined in subsection (b) of this definition and are akin to a river of liquid and flowing mud on the surfaces of normally dry land areas, as when earth is carried by a current of water and deposited along the path of the current.

It also means the collapse or subsidence of land along the shore of a lake or other body of water as a result of erosion or undermining caused by waves or currents of water exceeding anticipated cyclical levels or suddenly caused by an unusually high water level in a natural body of water, accompanied by a severe storm, or by an unanticipated force of nature, such as flash flood or an abnormal tidal surge, or by some similarly unusual and unforeseeable event which results in flooding as defined in subsection (a) of this definition.

(15) “Flood elevation study” means an examination, evaluation and determination of flood hazards and, if appropriate, corresponding water surface elevations or an examination, evaluation and determination of mudslide (i.e., mudflow) and/or flood-related erosion hazards.

(16) Flood Insurance Study. See “Flood elevation study.”

(17) “Flood insurance rate map (FIRM)” means the official map of a community, on which the Federal Insurance Administrator has delineated both the special hazard areas and the risk premium zones applicable to the community. A FIRM that has been made available digitally is called a “digital flood insurance rate map (DFIRM).”

(18) “Floodplain or flood-prone area” means any land area susceptible to being inundated by water from any source. See “Flood” or “flooding.”

(19) “Floodplain administrator” means the Director or community official designated by this title to administer and enforce the floodplain management regulations.

(20) “Floodplain management” means the operation of an overall program of corrective and preventive measures for reducing flood damage, including, but not limited to, emergency preparedness plans, flood control works, and floodplain management regulations.

(21) “Floodplain management regulations” means zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, building codes, health regulations, special purpose ordinances (such as floodplain ordinance, grading ordinance, and erosion control ordinance) and other applications of police power. The term describes such State or local regulations, in any combination thereof, which provide standards for the purpose of flood damage prevention and reduction.

(22) “Floodproofing” means any combination of structural and nonstructural additions, changes, or adjustments to structures which reduce or eliminate risk of flood damage to real estate or improved real property, water and sanitary facilities, structures, and their contents.

(23) “Floodway” means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than a designated height. Also referred to as “regulatory floodway.”

(24) “Functionally dependent use” means a use which cannot perform its intended purpose unless it is located or carried out in close proximity to water. The term includes only docking facilities, port facilities that are necessary for the loading and unloading of cargo or passengers, and ship building and ship repair facilities, and does not include long-term storage or related manufacturing facilities.

(25) “Highest adjacent grade” means the highest natural elevation of the ground surface prior to construction next to the proposed walls of a structure.

(26) “Historic structure” means any structure that is:

(27) “Lowest floor” means the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area, including any basement. An unfinished or flood resistant enclosure which is usable solely for parking of vehicles, building access or storage, located in an area other than a basement area, is not considered a building’s lowest floor; provided, that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable nonelevation design requirements of CMC 16.15.250(2).

(28) “Manufactured home” means a structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and is designed for use with or without a permanent foundation when attached to the required utilities. The term “manufactured home” does not include a “recreational vehicle.”

(29) “Manufactured home park or subdivision” means a parcel or contiguous parcels of land divided into two or more manufactured home lots for rent or sale.

(30) “Mean sea level” means, for purposes of the National Flood Insurance Program, the vertical datum to which base flood elevations shown on a community’s flood insurance rate map are referenced.

(31) “New construction” means, for the purposes of determining insurance rates, structures for which the “start of construction” commenced on or after the effective date of an initial flood insurance rate map or after December 31, 1974, whichever is later, and includes any subsequent improvements to such structures. For floodplain management purposes, “new construction” means structures for which the “start of construction” commenced on or after the effective date of a floodplain management regulation adopted by a community and includes any subsequent improvements to such structures.

(32) “New manufactured home park or subdivision” means a manufactured home park or subdivision for which the construction of facilities for servicing the lots on which the manufactured homes are to be affixed, including at a minimum the installation of utilities, the construction of streets, and either final site grading or the pouring of concrete pads, is completed on or after the effective date of adopted floodplain management regulations.

(33) “Recreational vehicle” means a vehicle:

(34) “Start of construction” includes substantial improvement, and means the date the building permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, placement or other improvement is within 180 days of the permit date. The “actual start” means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of a slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns or any other work beyond the stage of excavation, or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. “Permanent construction” does not include land preparation, such as clearing, grading and filling or the installation of streets and/or walkways or excavation for a basement, footings, piers, or foundations or the erection of temporary forms or the installation on the property of accessory buildings such as garages or sheds not occupied as dwelling units or not part of the main structure. With respect to a substantial improvement, the “actual start” of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor or other structural part of a building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.

(35) “Structure” means a walled and roofed building permanently constructed in or on the ground, including a gas or liquid storage tank that is principally above ground as well as a manufactured home.

(36) “Substantial damage” means damage of any origin sustained by a structure whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its predamaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

(37) “Substantial improvement” means any reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the structure before the “start of construction” of the improvement. This term includes structures which have incurred “substantial damage,” regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include: (a) any project to improve a structure to correct precited existing violations of State or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions; or (b) any alteration of a “historic structure”; provided, that the alteration will not preclude the structure’s continued designation as a “historic structure.”

(38) “Variance” means a grant of relief from the requirements of this chapter which permits construction in a manner that would otherwise be prohibited by this chapter.

(39) “Violation” means the failure of a structure or other development to be fully compliant with the community’s floodplain management regulations. A structure or other development without the elevation certificate, other certifications, or other evidence of compliance required in this chapter is presumed to be in violation until such time as that documentation is provided.

(40) “Water dependent” means a structure for commerce or industry which is dependent on the water by reason of the intrinsic nature of its operations and cannot exist in any other location.

(41) “Water surface elevation” means the height, in relation to the National Geodetic Vertical Datum (NGVD) of 1929, or other datum, of floods of various magnitudes and frequencies in the floodplains of coastal or riverine areas.

(42) “Water typing” means a system for classifying water bodies according to their size and fish habitat characteristics. The Washington Department of Natural Resources’ forest practices water typing classification system is hereby adopted by reference. The system defines four water types: